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Daily Archives: 25 Aug 2003

I am cutting the whole thing into paragraphs, using my very sharp scissors. I will read a paragraph at the time. I will read it disjointed and jumbled, and see what I can do about the argument before me, without linking it to the devastating argument over or under on the page. Doing this I am asserting my power over the criticism, which, right now, does feel like an attack.…

A New Zealander who sent millions of junk emails out every day has shut his business after his personal details were posted on the web. –Spammer ducks for cover as details published on web (New Zealand Herald) Spammer Shane Atkinson was outed by the Juha Saarinem of the NZ Herald. But like Pez candies lined up inside their plastic dispenser, new spammers are probably stepping forward even now. B*stards.

Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. — Jakob Nielsen –Usability 101: The What, Why and How of User-Centered Design (Alert Box) Huh? Quality attribute? Maybe that’s an important and useful technical term in information design, but I wouldn’t put it in a 101 course. How about (the admittedly simplistic) “Usability is the measure of how easy things are to use.” Nielsen appears to…

Technonerds go to movies strictly for entertainment, and of course, the most entertaining part comes after the movie when they can dissect, criticize, and argue the merits of every detail. However, when supposedly serious scenes totally disregard the laws of physics in blatantly obvious ways it’s enough to make us retch. The motion picture industry has failed to police itself against the evils of bad physics. –Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics (Intuitor)…

Humboldt traveled to the cave where hundreds of the Atures were buried, weighed down his mules with some of their skeletons, then headed to a nearby village. There, the local people showed the foreigner a talking parrot that no one understood: It was the last living thing to speak the language of the Atures, the people whose bones Humboldt had collected. — John McMurtrie reviews Spoken Here by Mark Abley…